Cabinet yesterday in a statement said whales and dolphins should “not be displayed” at theme parks and aquaria in Canada. The review of regulations followed an appeal from Attorney General David Lametti for more animal protection laws: “There is much more to do.”
Federal employees in internal memos expressed astonishment at the cost of an untendered agreement to have We Charity manage a student aid program. The plan was to pay post-secondary students $10 an hour, but included $500 per hour fees for We Charity lawyers and six-figure payments to project managers: “Bit of a shit show.”
Newly-disclosed records contradict testimony by ex-Finance Minister Bill Morneau that he had scant personal contact with a federal contractor, We Charity. The finance department released a series of “Hello Bill” emails from Craig Kielburger, co-founder of the charity: “They are all besties.”
We Charity highlighted Trudeau family members’ paid appearances with the group in appealing for a $43.5 million grant, according to documents. Internal memos indicate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office was “weighing in” on the grant proposal weeks before the Prime Minister said he first heard of it: “We have the documents right here.”
Suspension of Parliament has delayed disclosure of speaking fees paid to the Prime Minister’s wife and family. Justin Trudeau as a first-term MP personally collected almost $300,000 in talent fees from unidentified sponsors: “That way we could at least limit the damage we’re about to cause.”
The Public Health Agency in a 2019 internal memo boasted it was fully prepared for a pandemic after spending millions stocking federal warehouses. The memo was dated last September 16, three months before the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China: “We want to be as ready as possible.”
Media executives divvying up federal grants awarded their own companies 100 percent wage subsidies, accounts show. News Media Canada, a publishers’ lobby, yesterday did not comment: ‘Helping the press is in the interests of democracy.’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday prorogued the minority Parliament, halting for at least a month ongoing committee investigations of federal contracting, China meddling and We Charity. Trudeau told reporters if Opposition MPs didn’t like it they could force an election: ‘We will force a confidence vote.’
Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) yesterday took the oath as Parliament’s first woman finance minister. The milestone came thirty-five years after the appointment of the country’s first woman treasurer, Conservative MPP Dr. Bette Stephenson, appointed Ontario finance minister in 1985 by then-Premier Frank Miller. Stephenson died a year ago to the date at 95: “I am Canada’s first woman finance minister.”
Banks should extend mortgage deferrals to avert an October surprise for cash-strapped borrowers, mortgage brokers told the Commons human resources committee. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimated as many as one in five homeowners will have deferred mortgage payments by Labour Day: “These families will be forced to sell their homes.”
The World Health Organization will not allow Canadian MPs to question its officials over dealings with China on Covid-19. The Commons health committee had issued an April 30 summons for Dr. Bruce Aylward, a WHO epidemiologist who repeatedly praised Communist Party measures to contain the coronavirus: ‘China is being successful.’
Finance Minister Bill Morneau last night resigned four weeks after disclosing he accepted $41,366 in gifts from a federal contractor, We Charity. “I’ve done my best,” Morneau told reporters. “I apologized for that.”
CMHC chief executive Evan Siddall in a 2019 podcast complained Canada has “glorified this idea of home ownership” and enriched property holders at the expense of renters. Siddall praised a federal consultant who advocated federal taxes on “unhealthy home values”. Conservative MPs yesterday served notice they will summon Siddall for questioning: “The losers are the people who have won so much already through the increase in house prices, the owners.”
Federal IT specialists promise new security measures after hackers successfully targeted some 11,200 accounts including those held by tax filers and Employment Insurance claimants. “We’re looking at ways of strengthening our systems,” Marc Brouillard, acting chief information officer, told reporters.
The Department of Fisheries yesterday in a discussion paper proposed to give cabinet, not Parliament, broad new powers to regulate fish farming in coastal waters. The department said it required “flexibility to address emerging issues” in a proposed Aquaculture Act: “If they’re not monitoring the health of wild fish, how can they really know what the impacts are of aquaculture?”
